One of Windows 8’s key tablet features is the ability to run two apps on the same screen side-by-side. It’s a feature that iOS 5 has yet to adopt, but that hasn’t stopped one jailbreak dev from swiping the idea and creating a hack that can allow two or more iPhone apps to run side-by-side on any iPad. Sick.
Google launched its latest attempt at social networking yesterday dubbed Google+, a service which is said to focus on sharing content with groups of people that you place into “circles.” At the moment the service is available by invitation only, but by the time it goes public, there may be an official iPhone app for you to run it on.
Beating Skype to the iPad by just one day, VoIP app Fring is now available as a universal app on the iOS App Store, and it has one big advantage over Skype: not only can it work as an IM client, playing nice with Facebook, MSN Messenger, GTalk and more, but it’s also the first iPad app to support group video-calling over WiFi and 3G.
A fantastic update to a fantastic app. You can download it here.
Facebook might be looking to challenge Instagram’s crown as the reigning king of iOS photo sharing apps.
Here is a photo of a new week view in the native iOS 5 calendar app. That app now features a scrolling landscape view of the users calendar, but the view changes depending on whether or not you are using an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.
Apple’s new iOS 5 Weather app now delivers the local weather for your current location by default. Therefore you’ll always have a “here you are” weather report each time you open the app.
Just like last year, Apple’s kicking off WWDC a little earlier than its June 6th start date with an official WWDC 2011 app, which is now available for download on the App Store.
Thanks to the recent hacking catastrophe that left Sony’s PlayStation Network offline for nearly a month, online gaming for PlayStation users seems to be a rare treat these days. To help you get the most out of PSN when it is available, a new iPhone application will tell you when you’re good to game.
A native Google Maps application comes built-in to our iOS devices, and while it’s great for accessing maps and getting directions while we’re on the go, it is lacking a few important features. Thankfully, however, Google has just launched an updated Google Maps web app which offers a little extra.
In addition to the launch of ‘Apple Store 2.0’ on Sunday, the Apple Store application for iOS devices also got a much-needed revamp. The latest version of the application is now available to download from the App Store with some useful new features.
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for since the iPad first launched in April 2010. It’s the reason we all stood in line for a day to get our hands on one. And it’s the reason why the iPad has been such an overwhelming success all over the world. Yes, I’m talking about Playboy magazine… which is now available on your tablet.
Those Chinese censors are at it again… and this time the popular Flipboard app is the victim.
If you want to find an available hooker nearby, there will soon be an app for that on the iOS App Store.
Twitter announced on its blog yesterday that the company is finally rolling out an update to its mobile web application which will integrate HTML5 and introduce some nice new features, meaning it will no longer suck so much under mobile Safari.
While the iPad has seemingly countless uses, one fairly uncommon one is the ability to use it as an external display for your Mac. iDisplay, a simple little app from the App Store, lets you achieve this. After all, if you already have the iPad, why not use it to your advantage? This video will show you how to set up iDisplay and tweak it to your liking.
One of the biggest niggles with the iOS Mail application – for me – is that in order to delete multiple emails at once, you need to go through and select each individual message before you hit the delete button. I think that kind of defeats the object of having a multiple delete function; you might as well just delete them individually if you’ve got to touch them all anyway. However, a new jailbreak tweak called DeleteMail offers a solution to this problem.
Developed by Andrea Oliva, and now available in Cydia for $0.99, DeleteMail allows you to delete every single email in a particular mailbox in just two taps.
A new patent discovered by Patently Apple reveals that Apple is working on its own fitness center application for the iPhone.
The patent titled “Systems and Methods for Accessing Personalized Fitness Services Using a Portable Electronic Device” was originally filed in October, 2009, and describes an app that can benefit its users by helping them with their diet; suggesting when they should go to the gym and what exercises they should do; and allowing them to compete with friends and be ranked on their performance.
Services are broken down into four categories: New Customers, Getting There, In the Gym, and Post Workout; which will help users find their nearest fitness center and motivate them to actively attend, encourage them to workout and suggest different exercises, and provide post-workout motivation and fitness tracking features.
If you’re still taking time out of your day to call every Apple reseller in your area in the hope of finding that iPad 2 you’re after, the new FindOne app for iPhone could save you a lot of time and effort.
You select which model of the iPad 2 you want and FindOne checks the inventory of every Target and Walmart store in your vicinity to see if they have your chosen device in stock.
One of the best things about a device like the iPhone is that you can enjoy constant connectivity with your favorite social networks – wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. As one of the most popular social networks, it’s no wonder there’s a shed-load of third-party Twitter clients in the App Store, but how do you separate the good from the poor and decide which is best for you?
If you’re not keen on the official Twitter app, check out our list of the best 8 third-party Twitter apps for iOS after the break.
Way back in the early days of the App Store, an early hot property in the store was Podcaster, a simple utility that allowed users to browse, subscribe to, and download podcasts to the iPhone. It was very useful, both for finding new things to listen to on the go, but also for eliminating one of the key reasons for unnecessary and redundant syncing to a computer.
Naturally, Apple had it removed. Then it came back as RSS Player a few months later. And got stripped out again, in both cases for providing redundant functionality, an absurd claim, as Apple’s built-in iTunes app is only capable of searching for podcasts — subscriptions aren’t allowed. Fortunately, Apple has finallycome to its senses and now allows podcasting apps to be installed on non-jailbroken phones again, including the original Podcaster. Better still, the choices have multiplied, which brings us to the stellar subject of this review, Instacast.
This $1.99 app (a price I happily paid), approaches phone-based podcast management exactly the way I would like it. Its sole focus is on subscriptions rather than individual files. It uses a simple search mechanism that was able to track down every podcast I wanted to track. It also offers recommendations for popular series. You can also subscribe to any podcast you currently have loaded onto your iPhone. Rather than downloading these podcasts immediately (a potential nightmare), Instacast snags episode descriptions including links to either download or stream any given podcast. Piece of cake.
But the simple power of the app only becomes clearer with longer term use as you build out your library. It implements the increasingly-standard swipe down to refresh gesture first seen in Tweetie. This pulls down descriptions for any newly released episodes within your existing subscriptions and adds them to the existing queue. I have only synced my iPhone once since I downloaded Instacast, and that was to install iOS 4.3.1. I’m actually strongly considering deleting my podcast subscriptions from iTunes.
Now, the app isn’t perfect. Though the UI is fairly intuitive (usually through borrowing conventions of Twitter/Tweetie and Reeder) it has a few oddities, including an easy-to-miss play button, no on-screen volume controls, and no obvious way to delete a downloaded episode (you have to mark it as read). I assume such issues will be resolved in the near future, and the positives definitely outweigh the disadvantages.
In short, Instacast fixes part of a problem of both the iPhone and iPad: much as Apple has defined a new class of mobile computers that doesn’t rely on a desktop or laptop for full functionality, the company has also pushed administration of such devices onto desktop and laptop devices. It’s impossible to boot up an iPad for the first time without syncing it to a computer, and neither machine can install its own software updates without a tether. While this attitude is understandable for firmware and OS updates, it makes no sense for podcasts and other kinds of content. The longer I use Instacast, the more it feels like I’m finally cutting the cable.
Cult of Mac rated: [xrr rating=8/10]
With excellent timing for citation in Microsoft’s lawsuit against Apple over the latter’s App Store trademark, the American Dialect Society has just declared the word “app” their word of the year.
Beating out words like “junk” (?), “WikiLeaks”, “trend” and “nom” (thank God), app was voted the belle of the Dialect Society ball by over 69 linguists. It was a close race, though, with the Dialect Society’s executive secretary saying that while there was nothing “clearly dominant” this year, “there’s no question ‘app’ is a very powerful word.”
A few other Apple-related words also made the American Dialect Society’s list, including “fat-finger” to mean mistyping on a touchscreen and the “-pad” suffix in reference to tablet computers.
I’ve been exploring the Mac App Store and discovered another little tidbit that might pose a problem for some frugally minded people – like me. I was looking for apps that I already owned that might be in the App Store and I found one called RapidWeaver.
I was about to purchase it in the Mac App Store until I found out it would cost more to do so. Why did it cost more? The answer is simple – sales taxes and that is what led me to halt one Mac App Store application purchase this evening.
Apple has opened the Mac App Store today ushering a new era for Mac software distribution. It is an interesting new way to get software for your Mac in a way many of you are already used to using for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
It’s not perfect, but neither was the iTunes App Store for iOS. I’m sure that it will improve with time. I took a look through the Mac App Store today and I want to share some things about the new Mac App Store that you may have missed.
There is an interesting new video photography app called, 8mm Vintage Camera by Nexvio, Inc., that brings your iPhone and iPod Touch back in time to capture the beauty and magic of old school vintage movies.
It accomplishes this by mixing and matching different films and lenses and it does a good job of it. The total number of combinations allow you to get a glimpse into retro filming with 25 old school looks from bygone eras. It even comes complete with retro colors, flickering video, light leaks, dust and scratches (my favorite), and frame jitters. You can add any of these to your video with a flick of your finger.
With Christmas just around the corner, most of us are setting up our homes ready for the festive season. If you are looking to add some geekery to your festive decorations this year, MEA Mobile’s latest product, the iGlo iPhone controlled LED set could be just what you are after.
